I just have one interesting thing to tell you. My brother was having problem with his knee & running and was seeing physiotherapist specialist for this kind of problems in Belgrade . And she told him that she was in some seminar of physiotherapist held in Seoul, South Korea and that she spoke with Nadal physio and that she asked him what will happen with him for 10 years . Nadal's physio told her that his knees are in bad condition, but they request from him to make him fit to play no matter what is the price.

I just have one interesting thing to tell you. My brother was having problem with his knee & running and was seeing physiotherapist specialist for this kind of problems in Belgrade . And she told him that she was in some seminar of physiotherapist held in Seoul, South Korea and that she spoke with Nadal physio and that she asked him what will happen with him for 10 years . Nadal's physio told her that his knees are in bad condition, but they request from him to make him fit to play no matter what is the price.

__________________“There’s so many athletes, tennis players around the world,” he continued, trying to put his life into some kind of perspective, “they want to be the best in what they do. They want to succeed. Many of them, they don’t succeed in the end. I’m fortunate to have this opportunity and succeed.”

I know but I thought he'd keep up the pretense for a while at least. Instead he's being as blatant as can be.

I'm actually quite impressed at how not bothered he is.

Well, it's his business - if he says it's virus, then virus it is; still one has to wonder what's the point of all that.

__________________“There’s so many athletes, tennis players around the world,” he continued, trying to put his life into some kind of perspective, “they want to be the best in what they do. They want to succeed. Many of them, they don’t succeed in the end. I’m fortunate to have this opportunity and succeed.”

I'm not sure if someone posted this here before, but it wasn't the stomach virus directly that led to Rafa's withdrawal from the AO. What he said was that the virus caused him to lose valuable training time, so that he couldn't reach the level of physical fitness needed to meet the demands of a grand slam.

I'm not sure if someone posted this here before, but it wasn't the stomach virus directly that led to Rafa's withdrawal from the AO. What he said was that the virus caused him to lose valuable training time, so that he couldn't reach the level of physical fitness needed to meet the demands of a grand slam.

I guess he decided there was no point in entering if there was a very good likelihood of another early exit.

Yes, but how MUCH training time?

I'm sure that we are all familiar with stomach viruses. I suffered one of the most debilitating stomach viruses ever imaginable last year and in 12 hours, I felt fine. My condition was so bad that I literally could not stand up for more than 3 or 4 seconds. The pain in my abdomen and lower back was absolutely unbearable and I almost had to go to the emergency room. But suddenly, I had to vomit....and then I felt 80% better, and my condition improved dramatically over the next few hours. Then I experienced a much milder case last month.

These things don't last long. But for him to suggest that he has been crippled to the point of being ill-prepared 2-weeks ahead of time is ludicrous....especially since we see him already on court (a clay one). At most, he may have missed 2 or 3 days of training...and that's not even enough of a disruption to cause him to pull out 2 weeks in advance. There isn't enough training in the world that would substitute for an actual tour-level match (after his 6 month layoff) so this virus certainly didn't stifle any notable success.

Of course, I'm just speculating. I simply believe that it's just an excuse in order to delay his return and make it on clay, rather than a hard court.